Pacific Coast League

From BR Bullpen

The Pacific Coast League has been one of the three strongest minor leagues for almost a century. The league played as an independent league in 1903 before joining the NA in 1904 and for a half-century had strongholds in Los Angeles (the Angels and the Hollywood Stars), San Francisco (the Seals and Missions), Oakland (the Oaks), Seattle (the Rainiers), and San Diego (the Padres) - all five cities were lost to big-league expansion; the only traditional cities to have maintained a foothold in the PCL were the Portland Beavers and Sacramento (formerly home to the Solons, now home to the River Cats). The PCL has generally received much more publicity than the International League and American Association - until the '50s, it was home to the best baseball on the west coast and it also featured bigger cities than the other top-tier minors. As a result some have proclaimed it the top minor league, especially in its pre-1957 "heyday." A brief study of the rosters of the PCL, AA and IL for these years would seem to indicate that the talent level was probably pretty equivalent. In 1943 the league opened the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame at Wrigley Field; it would go dormant in the 1950s but be revitalized in 2003.

The PCL was the only minor league ever to be given the classification of "Open" - an experiment conducted from 1952-57 to have a tier nominally above AAA. The PCL had hoped to become a third major league. This plan was abandoned when major league owners discovered the riches on the west coast. This was the period when Steve Bilko won three straight MVPs and home run titles. The PCL of this time had very few prospects, mostly consisting of over-the-hill ex-major-leaguers like Max West, Eddie Basinski and Elmer Singleton.

3 The championship series canceled because of weather at semifinal series. The Albuquerque Dukes had won one semifinal series, but the other between the Tacoma Yankees and Portland Beavers was tied at two games apiece when heavy rain washed out the rest of the series. League president Roy Jackson, named the Albuquerque and Tacoma teams co-champions, as Tacoma had a better record.

Larry Stone: "Those were the most wonderful days I believe I ever had", in Mark Armour, ed.: Rain Check: Baseball in the Pacific Northwest, Society for American Baseball Research, Cleveland, OH, 2006, pp. 99-107.